My best friend Kelly and her husband Alun recently moved to a new house with their three kids under six. To say they are busy is an understatement. Kel has great style and I don’t doubt that if she had an extra 20 hours to spare her week that she would already have magazine-worthy spaces in her new home. However, at the moment she’s lucky if she has an extra 20 minutes a day, which is why she has asked me to help her get these rooms to where she wants them. And I couldn’t be more excited.

First up is the family room. This room is where the family will congregate the most so it needs to be finished….and pronto. This is our starting point…

This room is a bit of a balancing act. Of course it needs to look great but anything that goes into this space has to be kid and pet friendly (did I mention they also have 2 large dogs?). The furniture has to be comfortable and durable, and a rug cannot be light in colour due to dog hair.

The large grey sofa is staying where it is. It has a great modern shape and colour and happens to be very durable. The lamp is also staying. Not surprisingly, Alun’s priority was getting the new extra large TV you see above. Although it’s not not the prettiest thing in the room it does have a really cool bracket on the back so it can come out and tilt into the room when you want to watch it but also (and most importantly) goes flush against the wall when you don’t. After lots of back an forth the room is coming to together a little like this:

Kelly fell in love the chinoiserie toile fabric she found at Tonic Living and that really became the jumping off point for the colour scheme of greys, blues and yellow. Everything you see in the mood board has been finalized and/or purchased except for the side table which we are still searching for. In addition to what you see above, the final piece of the space will be a large round ottoman/coffee table upholstered in that toile fabric. I am desperately waiting for Home Depot to get back back to me when a wooden electrical wire spool in the right size becomes available so that I can use it for the ottoman base. I’m very excited to this family room come together!